Customer Reviews

The Nine Month Plan

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Parts of this book are funny, but it drags amd drags, and gets annoyingly repetitive. Reads like a first draft. Needs an editor.

The following are some of the reasons I gave this book 4 stars. It probably deserves less but it was a really good book despite all of its flaws. I think that Wendy Markham is a great author and knows what she's doing.

Obviously the cover art is very misleading about the nature of the book. This is a "heavy" read in which I shed some tears! So be prepared!

Nina is kind of a pain in the ass. What woman would HONESTLY think about having sex with her best friend just so he can have a baby and then walk about from them both? I would maybe think of caring the child of a friend who's married but not for some single guy whose biological clock is ticking! One word: adoption!

It is pointed out (several times) that Nina gave up her life to raise her siblings. It is also pointed out that the siblings have no clue exactly what Nina had to give up. OK...then why was it never brought out? I would have enjoyed it if maybe Joe had stood up for Nina to Nina's family during Thanksgiving while she was pregnant since she does EVERYTHING at their house and the pizza place!

I just find it funny that the reason Nina didn't want to be tied down with kids was because she had already raised her siblings. Lets review shall we....

Dom - an ass with no respect and responsibility! While I was reading I kept rolling my eyes every time Dom never showed up to work at the pizza place! If that was my brother trust me I wouldn't be treated like that.

The Sister - a spoiled brat that only thinks of herself! All she would ever talk about was her wedding! She was so rude to Nina and Nina just took like it was her due! (I can't remember her name.)

The Other Brother - in Germany the whole time

The Younger Brother - gets a girl pregnant in high school and then has his older sister adopt the baby to raise as her own!

No wonder...I wouldn't want to raise another kid either if I'd done such a bad job!
BUT, thankfully the story isn't about the siblings it's about Nina and Joe and their struggle to be together. This is one of the few books I ever read that actually made my heart hurt. I'm sure everyone knows what I mean. You feel the characters emotions. And then at the end you just know that the story is complete and as they say...they lived happily ever after!!

The back cover gave me the impression the book would be a light read. Needless to say, I found it more serious than what I expected.

I didn't care for Nina's 'incubator' mentality. I found myself consistenly disappointed in Nina. I was drawn more to Joe. I found Joe's character endearing. He showed her the patience of a saint throughout the entire book.

It was obvious he was having difficulty treating her as an impartial party in the whole pregancy scheme even though it's what she wanted. Yet, sometimes I got the feeling Nina seemed to want something else. Love? 'Mommy' status? What was Joe, a mind reader? She made her plan pretty clear and being a 'mommy' wasn't part of the plan.

I admit I kept reading, chapter after chapter, hoping Nina would come to her senses sooner than later. Even though the end of the story left me feeling good I wasn't feeling good about Nina's character up to that point.

I absolutely loved this book! The style it was written in allowed me to feel I was right there with them, having family dinners, shopping in Bloomingdale's, working at the pizza place. I cheered with them, laughed out loud many times, and cried, too. I even ate an entire jar of pickles while reading it, somehow feeling I was pregnant too. My only regret is that the sequel won't be out for months.

There is one huge unbelievable factor. And it's what the entire books stems from: Nina's pregnancy. This couple knows next to nothing about pregnancy (eg: some of the very obvious questions they have for the doctor), yet somehow readers are suppose to believe that Nina knew she was ovulating on the exact day she agreed to have Joe's baby. Huh? Not only that, but she gives him one night (that night) to conceive. To top it off, she's 36-years-old! Hello??? Most twenty-somethings have trouble conceiving the first month, let alone from one night!

I know this is fiction, but seriously, that one line "It has to be tonight" makes the rest of the book (well-written as it is) a little hard to swallow.

I just finished this book and it was the perfect beach and poolside book. I loved the glimpses into Nina and Joey's minds and sharing their fears, hopes and senses of humor. It was one of those books that you are dying to know the ending and when you reach the end, you just want to keep reading about the people in it. Really enjoyed it!

Judging a book by it's cover, I thought this book would be a light breezy read similar to the novels of Rachel Gibson, Elizabeth Beverley and such. Instead I found myself with a book about a mother's long ago death and the struggles a young woman faces dealing with raising her younger siblings. Nina dreams of the day she can leave her responsiblities behind but her best friend (whose fiancee ran off to become a nun 15 years ago)asks Nina to make him a daddy before she goes.
This book is packed with tragedy amd not many laughs. The tragedy drags on and on as Nina wrestles with the idea of being a mother herself. NOT a fun read. I barely made it to the end. The last few chapters of the book seem very rushed and not very fleshed out, a major revelation seems to be thrown in at the last minute without a lot of background.
This book just really seemed to drag. I think the publisher should have chosen a different cover for such heavy reading material.

This is a really fun book to read, a great book to take to the beach. It has some tearful moments too. But the characters are real, the situation has just enough fantasy and the humor will make you laugh out loud. I have but one complaint about this book. It takes place in Queens--the home of the Mets-- but the main characters are lifelong Yankee fans!

And I have to disagree with the review on the book being a hard slog because it was written in the present tense, I think the fact that it was written as such gave it a very personal and intimate feel. I throughly enjoyed this book and will be reading more of the author.

Nina Chickalini has been caring for her family since her mother died of eclampsia while giving birth to Nina's younger brother, Ralphie. Nina's dreams of moving out of her neighborhood in Queens and seeing the world has been put on hold until Ralphie graduates from high school and her familial obligations have been met. Joe Materi, her next-door neighbor & best friend is a workaholic. He longs to be a father and begins to half-jokingly suggest that she be the surrogate mother. Nina considers this and agrees one day. The story continues with the pregnancy, the both family's assumption they will marry, and Nina's goal of reaching "Independence Day" which is conflicting with her feelings for Joe and the baby. At the same time, Joe is slowly beginning to realize that he also has feelings, may have always had feelings, for Nina.

I have to agree with the reader below that pointed out that fact that this book was written in present tense. I am not sure what the goal was to write in present tense, perhaps to draw the reader more into the story, but quite frankly, it threw off the rhythm and flow of the scenes, especially the serious and intense ones. In addition, the reasons behind Nina's consent to have Joe's baby are a little off. She seems like an intelligent woman, but the fact that her main reasons to have Joe's baby is that she feels indebted to him for his kindness to her family over the years mixed in with the feeling that this is her only chance to know what it would like to be pregnant seems a bit odd. However, the scenes between Joe and Nina are tender and sweet. The main and secondary characters are likable, as well.

Overall, "The Nine Month Plan" is a sweet story between two best friends who are selfless to a fault and do not realize that they are truly meant for each other. It's an enjoyable and entertaining read, if you can bypass the present tense in which it is written and the reasons for which Nina decides to have Joe's baby. I hope that "Once Upon a Blind Date", the Chickalini continuation to "The Nine Month Plan", with Nina's brother, Dominic, in the title role, will fare better.